Compliance with condition 4 of the passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law – Responses to ORR letter dated 8 May 2018

| Rail Industry Company | Page number | |--------------------------------|-------------| | Arriva Rail London | 2 | | Arriva Trains Wales | 4 | | Chiltern | 10 | | CrossCountry | 16 | | East Midlands Trains | 21 | | Grand Central | 23 | | Great Western Railway | 26 | | Greater Anglia | 32 | | GTR | 34 | | Hull Trains | 39 | | Merseyrail | 43 | | MTRCrossrail | 46 | | South Western Railway | 49 | | Southeastern | 53 | | TransPennine Express | 57 | | Virgin Trains | 63 | | Virgin Trains East Coast | 70 | | West Midlands Trains | 75 | 21 May 2018

Dear John

Thank you for your recent letter, regarding Arriva Rail London (ARL)'s compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger and Consumer law.

ARL has a culture of ongoing review, to ensure continuous improvement in all areas of the business and, in light of the concerns raised by the ORR, we have reviewed our processes in regard to this topic. ARL can subsequently confirm the following responses to your areas of concern:

1. The majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps;

   London Overground services, which are operated by ARL on behalf of TfL, are shown in the NRE journey planner and have appropriate messages attached. ARL does not however have its own app or website and information about services is provided by TfL, including on its rainbow boards.

2. Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;

   TfL does not provide a cross-industry journey planner and so the issue of messages on services of other operators does not arise. Journeys on the TfL website can only be planned 4 weeks in advance, by which time we expect that the industry timetable will be correct.

3. Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options

   ARL does not have advance tickets or online ticket sales. There is no mechanism for contacting passengers who may have bought a ticket to travel on London Overground services via another website.

4. Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made.

   We are working to the revised Network Rail Informed Traveller recovery dates that have been set with the industry. Whilst we do process a number of late notice changes to our train plans, we endeavour to keep these to a minimum.

5. Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility;

ARL does not sell advance tickets, therefore the matter of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility does not arise.

6. Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends.

ARL does not have its own app or website and information about services is provided by TfL, with precise details of closures listed on the Planned Works Calendar. Likewise, details of closures are listed on NRE in the “Changes to train times” section.

7. Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not.

ARL does not have its own app. Many apps take TfL service status information which includes that for London Overground

ARL works under a Concession Agreement to Transport for London (TfL) and customer information is made available by TfL on their app and website.

Customer Experience is at the heart of everything ARL does, and we take our responsibilities to passengers very seriously, especially when considering service disruption and Passenger Information During Disruption.

I trust that the above provides you with the information you require, however please advise if you require any further information, in relation to the concerns raised.

Yours sincerely

Will Rogers Managing Director Dear Mr Larkinson,

Re: compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

Thank you for the opportunity to advise on the current situation at Arriva Trains Wales, related to compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law. Our Managing Director, Tom Joyner, has asked that I reply on his behalf as he is currently away from the office conducting a colleague tour across the network.

Arriva Trains Wales is committed to ensuring our customers are able to plan and make their journeys, although we are often unable to deliver some of the changes needed at short notice via our supplier chain. We have recently met with Nick Layt at the ORR to discuss our compliance in this area and remain committed to delivering the best service we can.

In order to inform and advise on the action taken, or planned to be taken, against the 7 listed areas, please see the details listed:

1. The majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps; a. ATW Use the Trainline booking engine. Work has been carried out previously so that the booking engine imports the NRE flags for ATW services, as evidenced in a recent compliance audit carried out by the ORR, however, this is not the case at the moment. This issue been reported to trainline and we await a response to confirm what action will be taken. Trainline use multiple portals for ticket sales depending on whether you are using a mobile phone, require a season ticket or just a standard ticket. Only the main website portal is meant to display the warnings. Trainline have promised for the other portals to receive this same information however a timeline for implementation has not been provided and it is doubtful that Arriva Trains Wales will see this development in its franchise lifetime.

John Larkinson Director Directorate of Railway Markets and Economics

21st May 2018 2. Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;

a. As above, trains that have been highlighted on NRE should be highlighted on the Arriva Trains Wales website and we await a response from Trainline to understand why this is not occurring. The Trainline are starting to recognise the need to improve other elements of customer touchpoint but again, ATW does not expect these improvements to occur in the remainder of its franchise.

3. Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options;

   a. ATW do use customer information to send targeted e-mails should journeys be amended after the point at which a ticket is sold. An example can be found as appendix A to this letter. However, if no contact details were taken at point of sale e.g. an advance ticket purchased at a ticket office, then we have no way of telling the customer directly that their journey has been amended.

4. Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made;

   a. ATW are being affected by a significant number of late notice possession requests in conjunction with Great Western Electrification Project at present. Services are being validated by Network Rail as late as T-10 days and as such there are likely to be several incorrect services still being advertised to customers. We are alerting customers to this on our website, and via social media, with a clear message stating journey planners may not be updated until 5 days before date of travel as seen in appendix B to this letter. We are also advising our customers of the same via posters at stations which is very helpful in getting this message across. NRE are too displaying alerts on their journey planner to the same effect. As specified in question 1 and 2, we are investigating with trainline the reasons why these flags are not being drawn into the ATW Journey planning tool.

5. Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility;

   a. ATW do not provide a facility for customers to sign up to alerts specifically for Advance ticket purchases. We have introduced a visible ticker on our website that informs customers as to when advance tickets are available until (see appendix C) and in development is a calendar that will be visible in the advance purchase ticket section of our website, highlighting the booking horizons for advanced purchase tickets, this is expected to be live in the coming weeks.

6. Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends; a. ATW accept that the communication of current GWEP improvement works (and past improvement works including CASR and NASR) could be improved, both on our own and the NRE website. NRE use the WEC (Weekly Engineering Circular) as a guide for works with ATWs website taking the NRE feed for improvement works. We are working with the NRCC to show more clearly, the impact to our customers improvement works have on journeys. ATW are looking to define a process that will sense checks both the NRE and our own website for accuracy and clarity.

7. Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not;

a. ATW’s main and mobile site both have the capability of displaying a banner. ATW’s new WebTIS site does not have this capability. There has been resistance from Trainline to develop this as it is believed it disrupts the booking flow and has the potential to reduce trainline sales. To this end, Trainline have put a high cost on this development which ATW will not pursue given there is only 5 months of the franchise remaining. The ATW mobile app does have the ability to display a banner however is not linked directly to the website. The banner on the app is manually entered as this was the specification provided to the developer who created the app. Development of the app is now frozen as the developer (Masabi) looks to exit the market.

Yours sincerely,

Barry Lloyd Head of Customer Experience Arriva Trains Wales Appendix A

Example email sent to a customer booked on a service likely to be amended

Hi Aledair,

Network Rail is carrying out essential modernisation and electrification work between Cardiff and Newport affecting train services throughout South Wales on:

Monday to Friday, 21 April to 25 May Monday to Friday, 25 June to 6 July

You have booked a ticket on a train service that could be affected. There will be significant changes to the following Arriva Trains Wales services:

- Ebbw Vale line
- South Wales to/from Manchester and Holyhead
- Cardiff to/from Cumbrian
- Newport to/from Cumbrian
- South Wales to/from Cheltenham
- Cardiff to/from Newport (less frequent service only)

Many other Arriva Trains Wales, GWR and CrossCountry services throughout South Wales will also be subject to minor refinements.

Updated timetables will only be available 5 days before each impacted week. Please check www.arrivatrains.wales website regularly prior to travel and ask Arriva Trains Wales staff for assistance.

We are doing all we can to reduce any inconvenience.

More information can be found here.

Thank you for your patience.

The Arriva Trains Wales Team. Appendix B

Service changes

(Click to enlarge)

Significant Changes: Monday to Friday Services.

Network Rail is carrying out essential modernisation and electrification work between Cardiff and Newport affecting train services throughout South Wales on:

- Monday to Friday, 23 April to 25 May
- Monday to Friday, 25 June to 6 July

Updated timetables only available 5 days before each impacted week. Please check this website regularly, prior to travel and ask Arriva Train Wales staff for assistance.

Please note the wording here is in the process of being updated to read ‘Journey planners will only be updated 5 days before each impacted week. Please check this website regularly, prior to travel and ask Arriva Trains Wales staff for assistance’ Appendix C Dear Mr Larkinson,

**Condition IV of the Passenger Licence**

Further to your letters of 23 February 2018 and 8 May 2018, I want to set out how Chiltern Railways is addressing the issues you have raised, from an industry perspective and, where relevant, how we will do so in future.

Our responses are based on the standards you have set out, which are reproduced below. For clarity, each Office of Rail and Road (ORR) requirement and its derivatives are highlighted in bold.

______________________________________________________________________

‘Train operators should be open about the impact on all passengers of the challenges they face and take responsibility for ensuring that their passengers can get the information they need to plan and make their journey as that information comes available.’

| ORR Requirements | Chiltern Railways Response | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | ‘Passengers should not have to look at multiple sources of information to get the information that they need; information should be aligned across all channels. It should be obvious from the train operator or third-party ticket engine/journey planner if the journey presented is not the normal one. For example, if there is a replacement bus or the journey takes longer than normal or is diverted’ | Disrupted trains appear on all channels from the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) feed; in line with ORR requirements, this information is presented consistently across digital retail channels owned by Chiltern Railways and third parties. | ‘Extra effort should be made to advertise changes that are unusual such as work that might affect the weekday peak period rather than just overnight or weekend trains so that all travellers, regular and infrequent are equally well informed.’

Our “Special timetables” webpage details engineering works and special events with a link to any revised timetables; this includes exceptional changes to our service such as daytime engineering works. Please refer to Appendix B below.

Our customer service team updates Journey Planning sites (sourcing information from the NRE feed) where we expect planned services to be disrupted.

As well as providing clear information about service changes, we plan to develop a way to advise passengers when journeys change, for tickets they have already purchased.

‘When there are engineering works, explain in jargon free language what is being done and why, and the impact it will have on passengers. This should be information about specific works and not just references to the general reasons why engineering work may be necessary.’

When engineering works impact passengers we will always explain this in plain English and provide further context which may be helpful.

‘Information should be consistent across all the train operator’s channels. The passenger should receive the same information and warnings.’

Disrupted trains appear on all channels as disruption occurs and this information is pulled directly from the NRE feed, ensuring consistency wherever information is available about Chiltern’s services online.

‘Clear information on the availability of advance tickets, what is available and when, is necessary to help passengers to plan journeys when the timetable is uncertain’

| ORR Requirement | Chiltern Railways Response | |------------------|---------------------------| | ‘When advance tickets have not been released this should be made clear to passengers using the ticket engine, and an estimate of when these tickets are likely to be available.’ | Recognising that Chiltern do not currently have this facility on our journey planner we are developing a page on our website to be updated weekly, advising passengers of the availability of Advance Fares. We are scoping out this piece of work which we hope to be able to deliver soon. | | ‘Where feasible, a facility should be provided for passengers to register their interest in advance ticket dates | |

chilternrailways.co.uk Chiltern Railways is the trading name of The Chiltern Railway Company Limited. Registered office: 1 Admiral Way, Doxford International Business Park, Sunderland, England SR3 3XP. Company Registration No. 3007939. VAT Registration No. GB 667 3877 77. and to be e-mailed by the train operator when these tickets become available’

‘An advance ticket should set out the latest date currently available for purchase, ideally, this should split out weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays.’

Advance fare notification emails are not available from Chiltern Railways. Recognising customers’ wish for this facility and the ORR’s view, we are considering how a web-based registration system can be developed and further, how our social media feeds can be used to raise awareness of the availability of advance fares.

‘When train times are changed for a ticket that has already been purchased the train operator should make every effort to contact the passenger to let them know. Should the new journey times not be convenient for the passenger they should be invited to apply for a refund / refunds should be given on request without having to pay an administration charge.’

Chiltern is exploring how to develop a process to assist passengers whose services are changed at short notice. We are also working on a way to communicate changes like to passengers effectively after a ticket has been purchased, including providing information about refunds and relief from administration fees.

We are keen to work with other TOCs to explore development of a system to integrate this process across the network. This may be a piece of work we can develop through our RDG committees.

Timetable information should be correct as far ahead as possible, and where timetables are not confirmed information about their status should be accurate and updated frequently.’

| ORR Requirements | Chiltern Railways Response | |------------------|---------------------------| | ‘Where times are not confirmed and there is the possibility that they will be changed this should be flagged to passengers. Ideally as this information should include the date when the timetable will be confirmed to allow passengers to check at that time and the reason for the possible/confirmed change to times.’ | Chiltern Railways have worked with NRE to ensure an additional feed can be incorporated into all digital channels to answer this challenge this year. | | ‘Should incorrect timetables still be in planners at T-1 the train operator should take extra steps to advertise that the times shown are incorrect. This could include website banners and publishing PDF timetables showing the correct times. National Rail Enquiries messages should also | Chiltern Railways utilises its ‘Special timetables’ webpage for this purpose and this information will also be included on an additional NRE feed to all Chiltern Railways digital retail channels this year. | Below are some examples of the way we provide information to customers in a variety of circumstances which we hope this demonstrates the clarity we aim to provide.

It is clear there are passenger information issues which are better-addressed by the industry collectively. Where we believe this is the case, we will seek to raise this through the Rail Delivery Group.

Our teams are committed to providing a service that has passengers’ needs at its heart and we recognise and appreciate the role of the regulator in assisting industry to that end. We will undertake to update you on the plans we have set out above, as and when they take effect.

Yours sincerely

Eleni Jordan Commercial Director Chiltern Railways Appendix A - Example of a disruption feed on Chiltern desktop site, same for mobile web and mobile app

Appendix B - Example of the special timetable change page Appendix C - Example of detail of special timetable change page within a date

Appendix D - Notification of temporary timetable changes on the Chiltern Railways website Dear John,

Re: Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

I write with reference to the letter received on 8 May, requesting information relating to how CrossCountry is responding to the seven areas of concern identified as part of the ORR monitoring of customer websites and apps. This is in specific reference to the ongoing issues as a result of Network Rail being unable to confirm services at T-12.

Since the issue arose, CrossCountry has recognised the uncertainty that this could create for customers and has proactively adopted a number of internal processes to ensure that we provide our customers with the relevant and appropriate information to enable them to make informed travel and ticket choices. It is imperative that we do not advertise train services that we know for certain will not be running, and the processes we have put in place mean that we avoid this scenario completely. However, we do recognise that our customer base at weekends (when the majority of changes caused by engineering work occur), seek the reassurance of booking in advance to get the cheapest ticket and so we have proactively taken action to enable early booking with confidence as far as we are able.

Prior to the temporary cessation of informed traveller timescales at T-12, the CrossCountry train planning team celebrated 200 successive weeks of T-12 compliance, enabling us to open services for booking twelve weeks in advance and give customers the confidence in the timetable. This has meant that we have not made available for booking any service that was not running, only advertising services that have been confirmed (either altered or unaltered).

While we are currently no longer able to meet T-12 given the issues with Network Rail, we have:

- Created a dedicated landing page on our website providing customers with detailed advice on journey planning and travel and refund policies;
- Set up a robust process and information flow between our Train Planning and Commercial teams so that services we know will run as booked can be opened for reservations and for the sale of Advance tickets;

18 May 2018 • Prevented the sale of train-specific Advance tickets on those services we know will be affected by engineering work; • Recommended that customers check with the relevant operator closer to the time with a full refund offered if the customer no longer wishes to travel, and, for tickets on CrossCountry services, allow travel on alternative services two hours either side of the original service without penalty.

Our approach to date has worked well, balancing the avoidance of preventing Advance ticket sales on affected trains, but opening unaffected trains for booking as far in advance as we can.

We provide the following responses in relation to the specific requests set out in the letter.

| Issue | Action Taken | Further Action Underway | Barriers | |----------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | The majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps | In relation to the T-12 issue, since 23 February the CrossCountry website has featured on its homepage banner an alert for those seeking to buy tickets more than 6 to 12 weeks in advance. From this alert customers can then get further information so that they can make informed choices about their journey planning. No banner on app. | No further action in relation to website as already provides warning. | We use a 'white label' edition of the Trainline app and are therefore heavily restricted in the level of amendment we can make to this. This also prevents bespoke amendments including banners and in-flow messaging. Any changes have significant cost and development timelines. | | Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all | Between T-12 and T-6 where CrossCountry services are not confirmed as running these will not be shown as an option within any journey suggestions, avoiding the need for any flag. Between T-6 and T-0 any CrossCountry services shown are confirmed. | No further action because of the barriers. | We are unable to replicate the flag used on the NRE website as we use a white label edition of the Trainline booking engine which prevents bespoke including banners and in-flow messaging. Any changes have significant cost and development timelines. |

1 https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/ | Issue | Action Taken | Further Action Underway | Barriers | |----------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options | Where CrossCountry services are not confirmed as running these will not be returned as a visible option within any journey suggestions on CrossCountry booking channels. Where customers book tickets for other operators' services which are not confirmed we make it clear on our website that if a customer buys an Off-Peak or Open ticket more than six weeks out (e.g. at a station) for a train that is subsequently altered, a refund can be claimed. We are issuing e-mails to those customers directly affected every two weeks which point customers to where to find more information (example provided as Appendix 1). | We are contacting customers as far as we are able, noting the barriers regarding customer data use. | We would not hold or have legal access to details of those customers buying Off-Peak or Open tickets via stations or other retail channels not controlled by CrossCountry, and could therefore not proactively contact them. | | Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made | Our booking engine would not advertise trains that were known to be incorrect a week beforehand. | No further action required | Not applicable | | Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility | CrossCountry has, for a number of years, provided a free ticket alert service to tell customers when Advance tickets are released for sale for any specific day. We also have information about this on the dedicated page relating to this issue. | No further action required | Not applicable |

2 [https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/tickets/how-to-find-cheap-tickets/ticket-alerts](https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/tickets/how-to-find-cheap-tickets/ticket-alerts) 3 [https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/travel-updates-information/changes-to-train-times](https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/travel-updates-information/changes-to-train-times) | Issue | Action Taken | Further Action Underway | Barriers | |----------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------------| | Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends | The volume of weekday engineering work on our network is relatively very small and where this does occur it tends to be major blockades (such as at Derby in Summer 2018), which we advertise significantly through all channels available to us. | No further action required. | Not applicable | | Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not | We do not have this feature on our app | No further action planned. | We use a 'white label' edition of the Trainline app and are therefore heavily restricted in the level of amendment we can make to this. This also prevents bespoke including banners and in-flow messaging. Any changes have significant cost and development timelines. |

It is also worth highlighting that we have been in regular contact with Transport Focus regarding the processes we have adopted, which have received positive feedback.

I hope the above information is useful but please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require any further information.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Cooper Managing Director Dear Customer,

Network Rail are temporarily changing how far in advance train timetables can be confirmed. Train times and tickets are usually available for customers to plan and book their journeys up to 12 weeks before departure. However, possibly for the duration of the next timetable beginning on 20th May, some may not be available until closer to the date of departure.

There might be some changes to the timetable from when you originally purchased your train ticket, please check our dedicated page to see if your journey has any amendments. Upcoming dates which may be affected are 26 May to 1 June 2018 inclusive.

Our priority is to keep you informed, updated and on the move, so please check our dedicated page for up to date information.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause to your journey.

The CrossCountry team

Check your journey 21st May 2018

Dear Mr Larkin

Compliance with condition 4 of the passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

In response to your letter dated 8th May 2018 regarding your concerns with certain areas of PIDD compliance, the below details the measures already in place, changes made since 23rd February, and those planned in future for East Midlands Trains;

- When engineering works are confirmed to cause journey disruption, for example when we operate rail replacement, our website will highlight this to customers with a warning triangle. At this stage this is not the case for speculative disruption. Trainline have now gained access to the NRE disruption feed which includes speculative disruption warnings and they are currently assessing how they could integrate this on their sites including East Midlands Trains.

- Where a change occurs to booked journeys we make every effort to contact affected customers using our own Customer Service Centre or Trainline, this would only not occur where contact details are unavailable.

- East Midlands Trains publish on our website the date until which tickets are available (https://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/tickets-deals/), this has been updated to advise customers that some tickets may not be available until 6 weeks prior to departure and a specific news page added to provide more detail of these late publications (https://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/information/media/news/Timetable-Publication-Changes/).

- A “ticket alerts” functionality was added to our website last year, allowing customers to register for an email alert when a specific route and date goes on sale and so take advantage of our lowest Advance Purchase fares.

- Where a timetable is not confirmed at T-12 we do not place Advance Purchase fares on sale during disruption. Details of the impacted dates and routes have also been made available on the news page referred to above.

- Since the launch of our new mobile app, we have been working with our provider, The Trainline, to ensure this meets PIDD compliance. At this time we are still awaiting a formal proposal from Trainline on how and when this will be achieved. East Midlands Trains is committed to achieving full compliance and will continue to work with The Trainline to achieve this.

Yours sincerely

Lucy Dean Head of Revenue John Larkin Director, Railway Markets & Economics Office of Rail and Road One Kemble Street, London WC2B 4AN

18th May 2018

Dear John,

Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

With reference to your letter of 8th May 2018, please find the information requested below.

1. The majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps;

For planned disruption, we display alert triangles next to journey results that will include alternative transport. The incorporation of short-notice and live on-the-day disruption warnings such as these into the booking platform is not currently within our third-party website provider’s development roadmap for Grand Central.

As part of our improvements to the journey planning and ticket purchase experience, we will launch a new website in Q3 2018. Warning icons and messages are in our development pipeline, which we anticipate progressing through Q1 2019.

2. Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;

The functionality to insert warning messages for services which are not confirmed to run is not currently within our third-party website provider’s development roadmap for Grand Central.

In recognition of the small number of Grand Central services which will be re-timed, or will not run as shown when they first become available 12 weeks before travel, we have implemented dedicated pages within our website; with a prominent link from the home page; which detail options available to customers to change their journey and the dates when services will be confirmed to run. 3. Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options

If Grand Central services are subject to change or retimed after being made available for reservation, we make every effort to proactively contact customers who have purchased via our Website or Telesales retail channels by telephone or e-mail to offer alternatives or a refund.

In addition, we would advise other operators and third-party retailers of services changes such that they can contact those customers who have purchased via their retail channel.

4. Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made.

We understand that to date, no Grand Central journeys have been affected in this way and we are not aware of their being any immediate likelihood of such going forward. Should this occur in the future, we would deploy a comprehensive communication plan to customers, including direct contact, social media and website banner alert messaging.

5. Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility;

Following Network Rail’s announcement in February 2018 regarding finalising timetables six weeks in advance rather than 12 weeks, we implemented dedicated pages within our website with a link from the home page which explains the changes to customers and provides information how it may affect journey planning. In addition, a ticket availability calendar and list of affected services is provided to ensure customers have a ready overview of when tickets can be purchased for their journey.

As part of our improvements to the journey planning and ticket purchase experience, we will introduce a prominent Advance ticket calendar on the homepage of our website in Q3 2018, to further highlight when tickets are available for purchase. 6. Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends;

Grand Central is typically unaffected by weekday daytime engineering works. In any case we publish customer information for planned timetable changes equally, regardless of the time or day of travel or journey purpose of our customers.

7. Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not.

At present, Grand Central does not have a mobile application. As part of our improvements to the journey planning and ticket purchase experience, we will launch a mobile app in Q3 2018, which will display a banner message, in line with our desktop & mobile websites, in the event of service disruption.

Grand Central is committed to ensuring information provided to passengers is accurate, appropriate and timely, as we believe that all customers should be able to travel with us at ease and with confidence.

Yours Sincerely,

Richard McClean Managing Director Ref: GR974 \\ GWR \\ ORR \\ MH18-029

24th May 2018

Mr. John Larkin Director Railway Markets & Economics Office of Rail and Road One Kemble Street London WC2B 4AN

Dear John,

Re: Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

Great Western Railway (GWR) welcomes the opportunity to provide an update on our compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions (SNRP) and highlight to you the barriers currently being experienced in providing a consistent, accurate and timely flow of information to our passengers in response to your letter of 8 May 2018.

As we set out in our response to Stephanie Tobyn’s letter of 22 December 2017, and our face to face meeting with your colleagues on 25 April 2018, GWR takes very seriously compliance with its licence obligations, including those under condition 4 of its SNRP relating to support for the industry obligations relating to provision of timetable information.

As a franchised operator on revenue risk, we are highly motivated to ensure accurate information is able to be provided to our passengers by T-12 so that they are best able to plan their journeys and book tickets. However, achieving this outcome, given the current industry position as highlighted by ORR Chief Executive Joanna Whittington in her public statement of 23 February, has become a significant challenge for the wider railway partnership, with the inter-dependencies between Network Rail and operators having been stretched beyond their limit through the decision of the System Operator to force the industry to T-6 (and in frequent cases significantly later) production of the Passenger Timetable.

You will be aware, through the copy sent to your office, that we have in the last few weeks written to the System Operator to express our deep concern and dissatisfaction with the current position. We hope that our letter, which highlighted issues over the first May Bank Holiday, when the late provision of Timetable information caused an unacceptably high level of disruption to our passengers, will prompt a review of the issues and enable the industry to work together more effectively in addressing this problem. We were therefore heartened to receive a response from the System Operator last week, also copied to your office, which sets out a number of actions and initiatives that could, if adopted by the wider railway partnership, start to address some of the challenges being faced. Rest assured that we will continue to lobby and work with all parties to achieve a betterment in the situation at the earliest opportunity.

However, it must still be recognised that a number of the issues highlighted in your list below would not be issues if the decision to delay final Timetable information until T-6 (and on occasion later) were returned to the industry licence requirement of T-12, and while Network Rail have communicated their reasons for this, it will continue to have serious repercussions on our ability to deliver for our passengers as we would wish.

Furthermore, while even the reduced T-6 anticipated timescale for Timetables are often not being met, which would be bad in itself, it is compounded still further by the amount of engineering work being carried out across our network to meet repeated delay in major project delivery and the condensed Electrification timetables. This engineering work is also generating a significant number of late notice possession requests and changes, which we are receiving on a weekly basis, and which mean even more changes to the already delayed timetable.

You have asked us to respond in the following areas:

a) set out the action taken since your letter of 23 February 2018 to ensure that passengers get the information that they need, especially when short notice changes are being made to the timetable;

b) explain where necessary improvements are underway but have yet to be implemented, together with timescales for introduction; and

c) highlight any barriers preventing them from making all the improvements together with the action being taken to address these

against each the seven “Areas of particular concern” identified in your monitoring, as follows:

1. “the majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps”

We currently show warning messages from NRE on our Check Your Journey and Live Train Times pages within the Travel Updates section of our website and our mobile website and on the Live Times page of the GWR App (noting that this only covers on the day disruption) this does not currently include the website booking flows.

a) and b) We are working with our developers to introduce an improvement to our booking flow so that passengers purchasing a ticket will see a warning icon against any services which have not been confirmed by Network Rail or where late notice possession requests mean an amended timetable will be in operation. When clicked the icon will present passengers with a similar message to that displayed on the NRE website:

Timetable updates for your journey: At present, we cannot confirm whether this service will run and some additional services may be missing from the journey planner. We would advise that you follow this link to sign up for information about any potential changes to your service. We have also recently added a “More details” link (see Example 1. below) which will transfer the customer to the NRE site, which provides more detailed information. The NRE website provides operator specific information, by train operator, including what is confirmed and accurate at any given time. There is a further opportunity for the customer to register for updates and information on their planned journey.

Example 1.

We are also working to provide a new pop up notification on the GWR App that appears when a passenger selects a journey that has yet to be confirmed by Network Rail or is subject to a late notice engineering change. In this instance a link will be made available to transfer the passenger to the NRE website for more detailed information. We are further working with our App developers to enhance the passenger messaging capability and allow it to be much more targeted. We expect all this work to be implemented by December 2018.

c) We are not aware of any barriers in relation to this aspect.

2. “where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all”

As noted in 1. above, we currently show warning messages from NRE on our Check Your Journey and Live Train Times pages within the Travel Updates section of our website and our mobile website and on the Live Times page of the GWR App (noting that this only covers on the day disruption) this does not currently include the website booking flows.

b) See answer in 1. above

c) We are not aware of any barriers in relation to this aspect. 3. “where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options”

a) and b) When services have been opened for reservations and there is a significant change to journey times because of late changes to engineering works or other issues, we already contact by email all those passengers who have booked through our own digital channels informing them of the changes to journey times. We also make contact with and request that our third party retailers contact all passenger who have booked through them, via their website or mobile app, on our behalf. We are currently trialing a similar contact process using SMS and we hope to be able to implement the successful solution later in the year.

In addition where a Major Possession (typically lasting 2 or more days) is planned we have an automated system in place for passengers who book a ticket through our site or through the GWR App. Passengers who do so immediately receive an email which leads with a recommendation to “check train times again before travelling”. This is repeated at T-24 hours. We are current reviewing the wording of these messages to try and strengthen the impact of the advice.

c) Whilst we have visibility of the passengers who have made bookings through our website and the GWR App a high number of online bookings are also made through other third-party retailers. We therefore have to rely on these third-party retailers to agree revised messaging and then send out the email communication on our behalf.

4. “attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made.”

a) and b) As set out in 1. we are working with our developers to introduce an improvement to our booking flow so that passengers purchasing a ticket will see a warning icon against any services which have not been confirmed by Network Rail or where late notice possession requests mean an amended timetable will be in operation. See answer 1.

c) The provision of accurate and timely information to passengers is solely reliant on Network Rail’s ability to recover T-12 Informed Traveller Timescales and provide a validated Timetable to the industry in a timely manner. This coupled with better management of engineering works, so as not impose repeated late notice engineering access requests, is the biggest barrier to addressing the issue. 5. “Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility;”

We aim to provide information on for passengers wishing to book Advanced Fares on our website including details of service and availability dates this can be found at https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/tickets-railcards-and-season-tickets/booking-tickets-in-advance

a) and b) In order to assist passengers during the current challenge of late Timetable provision we have added further detailed information to our website to explain that Network Rail has made temporary changes to the advanced availability of final timetables for approximately six months from 20 May 2018. This new section provides details of the periods affected and also information on how refunds can be claimed. The new link titled: *Reservations aren’t open yet on the following dates:* can be found on the same page listed above.

c) We are not aware of any barriers in relation to this aspect.

6. “weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends”

The Planned Engineering Works page within the Travel Updates section of the website shows all planned engineering works across the GWR network. https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering This also highlights the specific trains affected by the works.

a) and b) While Planned Major Engineering Works affecting weekday peak time passengers on the GWR Network are unusual there are some specific examples during 2018 such as “Newbury”. In these cases, we provide additional point of sale advice about service changes, bespoke journey planners and station posters well in advance of the works to allow passengers to plan effectively. We also ensure the front page of our website carries a banner to alert passengers on the day and we also apply bespoke pop up messages to the booking flow which raise awareness of ‘significant’ changes to services. As a result of feedback we are currently looking at ways of further increasing the prominence of weekday peak time possessions on our digital platforms and aim to implement any improvements as soon as possible. A further source of information is https://www.gwr.com/upgrade which gives a forward view for passengers up to 9 months in advance of planned works. This page is referenced on our transformation displays and our large display boards which are being installed at key stations.

c) We are not aware of any barriers in relation to this aspect. 7. “although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not”

a) and b) This issue is being addressed as set out in 1. through the work being carried out by our developers to provide a pop up notification on the GWR App that appears when a passenger selects a journey that has yet to be confirmed by Network Rail or is subject to a late notice engineering change. The same notification system will be used to provide service updates during disruption.

d) We are not aware of any barriers in relation to this aspect.

In summary we consider that GWR and other operators are being impacted by an exceptional set of circumstances, balancing short and longer-term passenger interests and cooperating with Network Rail to assist in the efficient delivery of the essential upgrade programme with the minimum of additional delay.

It is well established that the current challenge in the provision of accurate and timely information to passengers have as a root cause the volumes of engineering works, repeated delay in major project delivery (which in turn is driving the massive uplift in late notice engineering access requests from Network Rail) and the decision by the System Operator to impose T-6, and often much later provision of the Timetable, on the industry.

While recognising the scale of the ongoing challenge and the need to constantly review how we can manage better through these difficult times and minimise the impacts on our passengers, we consider we are compliant with, and going well beyond, our licence obligations in this regard.

We would be happy to discuss any of the information provided above in further detail.

Yours sincerely

Mark Hopwood Managing Director Dear John

Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer Law

With reference to your letter of 8 May 2018, please find below actions taken since your letter of 23 February 2018 in order of your items labelled 1 to 7.

1 - GA has a yellow warning symbol on desktop but nothing mobile web. Trainline the supplier who manages the white label site has been briefed to scope this out for all TOCS, and we are awaiting timescales and costs for having this change made.

2 - The app shows cancellations to services on the day within the booking flow. This is not possible within the desktop site as we have a white label solution from Trainline, so it would require development. We have briefed Trainline on our requirement so they can confirm costs and timescales for adding a cautionary message against a particular train in the timetable/fores matrix and are awaiting a full response. However, there is a Journey check feed on the website which does provide all of the information about changed or cancelled services in advance or on the day. Depending on circumstances, GA would also place additional warning messages on the home page if necessary to highlight such changes.

3 - GA does contact prebooked customers if services have changed since tickets have been booked. If GA is made aware that a change has been made, we would email customers booked on specific services advising them of the change and offering them an alternative service or refund.

4 - GA would use the home page warning banner to highlight any train times that may still be wrong a week away from travel. But as bullet point 2 above, GA are investigating manual pop up messages within the booking flow, to mark any specific info that may be attached to a train.

5 - GA offers a ticket calendar and advance ticket alert already. This is on the home page.

6 - Unusual engineering such as daytime works would be highlight by a banner message on the home page of the website as well as via Journeycheck.

7 - A banner message for the app is in development to replicate the same warning messages as the home page. GA is currently awaiting timescales and costs for implementing this change and we envisage this can be completed by the end of the summer.

In addition to the above responses, GA is already working with Nick Layt at the ORR with regard to compliance with condition 4 and I have also provided information relating to station based customer information during disruption or service alterations below.

All front line colleagues are issued with smartphones or tablets to be able to access service alterations and live train running information.

During disruption, GA implements its Hub Station procedure whereby information is fed into a designated location for dissemination to satellite station(s) in the local area. At times of service disruption the “Switch” procedure is implemented at stations involving colleagues redeploying from their normal duties to provide front line customer service and information.

GA supports a network of colleagues who are part of our Customer Action Teams (CATS) who are Head Office staff and are available on a rostered basis to be called out at times of service disruption to assist with Customer Service and Information.

Where ticket office facilities have been withdrawn GA have introduced Mobile Customer Service Hosts who will deploy as required to ensure customers are correctly informed and supported during periods of service alterations or disruption.

During service alterations station screens are placed in “Disruption Mode” so that they display only the trains that are actually running and information messages.

The VITA Help Button on station Ticket Vending Machines enables customers, if stations are unstaffed, to access the 24/7 support team in Norwich.

If you require further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Cross Head of Franchise Management 11th May 2018

Dear John

In response to your letter dated 8th May, please find set out below GTR’s response to the points 1-7 raised and next steps to ensure we continue to be compliant under license condition 4.

GTR continue to be cognisant of the fact that the challenges being faced by the industry have a negative impact on our customers. Our aim throughout is to ensure that whatever changes are taking place whether that be the impact of late delivery of the May Timetable or notification of changes to schedules services due to engineering work our customers will be informed.

Our main aim is to inform customers as soon as possible as to the actual impact any changes actually have on the journey they are undertaking but as a minimum an alert to show a possible impact and to check back later.

All of the work that is being undertaken by the various teams is to mitigate these challenges as much as possible

**What we are doing to keep our customers informed?**

**Journey planners**

1. the majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps;
2. where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;
3. attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made
4. weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends; and,
5. although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not.

GTR have throughout this change ensured that warning icons and messages are shown on the NRE website; this in turn displays on all 4 GTR branded websites including the ticket engine. We have also utilised banners across the home page of all the websites and the apps to alert customers if the change is more disruptive. These can be fed from both NRE and our own control centre. In conjunction with the NRE overarching principles have been defined to ensure we get the correct message across. As we move away from the introduction of the May timetables we may want to refine or change these and this work will be completed taking into account any feedback from customers and Transport Focus who we work with very closely.

We regularly audit the websites to ensure that the content is correct and that the message is clear across all sites. All efforts are being made to ensure any late notice changes that mean the journey planners are incorrect are quickly sorted. If time prevails the journey planners are updated through Network Rail rebidding or if this is not possible a banner alert will be posted to the train advising customers the train time has changed or being cancelled and what alternative a customer has.

Our customer ambassadors in the control will update where necessary for very late notification of engineering especially at the weekend.

**Overarching principles**

| Pre-May 20th | |--------------| | **Pre 20 May** – New Timetable from 20 May - please recheck your journey before travelling. Owing to the major timetable change from 20 May. This timetable change means all train times will be different to those before 20 May. Please follow the link for further information on the timetables. |

| Post May 20th | |---------------| | **Known trains that will not run** - This train will not run. Please check www.railplan.com/Timings for more information. | | **T2-T6 rolling (informed traveller as per the industry text)** - Bulletin message from 22:00 until 05:00 midweek and all day at weekends/Bank holidays stating: | | At present, we cannot confirm whether this service will run and some additional services may be missing from the journey planner. We would advise that you follow this link to sign up for information about any potential changes to your service. (link to informed traveller page) | | **T6 – T12 rolling (informed traveller as per industry text)** – Bulletin on every train to check before your travel. |

**NRE Website example for T2-T6** - (Sat 23rd June) GTR Southern website/ticket engine for T2-T6 (Sat 23rd June)

NRE Website example for very late engineering work notification at Stoats Nest - (Sat 24th April) Ticket Engines – Advance Purchase Tickets

3. where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options

4. Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility

As a primarily commuter TOC, Advance purchase (AP) tickets are not available across all of the GTR, they are only available on Southern and only make up 0.07% of all tickets sold.

Our policy during this time is to only open up AP tickets for purchase once confirmation has been received that the journey will operate. This can in reality be quite short notice especially during the introduction of the May 2018 TT due to the late bid back from NR, however this will generally only affect weekend and late night trains with weekday services largely unaffected. We are working with our train planning team to understand what can be opened earlier on a longer term basis to ensure customers have a full range of ticket opportunities where practicable. All bulletins on our ticket engine take customers through to the relevant pages on the NRE website for the full guide and when the tickets are available.

Whilst Advance Purchase tickets are non-refundable, save of course where the services does not operate, we do offer free amendments online to offer maximum flexibility.

NRE Website – AP availability and text from Southern AP page Next Steps

GTR are committed to continue to offer the best experience possible to inform our customers of the changes that are taking place and to this end the following is already underway.

The main focus to date has been to ensure the May TT is introduced and customers are aware of how its introduction will affect them. In addition keeping everyone informed of the engineering work and its impact. We can always improve so the following additions are being worked on to improve the situation until the recovery plan puts everything back to T-12.

- Recruitment of additional resources has started. This person will be an extra link between the train planning, customer information and pricing teams. Their prime focus is the customer and what they will see. Being the go to person when changes happen and ensure they communicate to all parties in a timely manner and all information is entered onto all the relevant systems that inform our customers. Including updating bulletins and banners, keeping the AP calendar up to date and reviewing everything we do.
- Our apps work slightly differently to the website. The bulletins posted to the train are only shown once you select the train (see below), GTR are investigating what opportunities are available to change how this is shown to customers to give a better experience and to ensure the messaging is clear.

In addition, feedback is always welcome and we will continue to work with Transport Focus and RDG to ensure that changes that take place are shared at industry forums.

Kind Regards Dear John

Re: Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

We welcome the opportunity to provide an update on our compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger licence and GB statement of National Regulatory Provisions in response to your letter of 8th May 2018. Please find below our responses to the three questions you set out against each of the seven areas of concern identified through your monitoring of compliance with Licence Condition 4.

We are currently engaged in a significant investment programme in our digital channels which ensure that customers can easily plan their journey, purchase a ticket and keep up to date with relevant information. We are making further improvements to these channels over the next financial year, including a new website to be launched at the end of the year.

The actions we are taking or plan to take around our digital channels to respond to the current Informed Traveller issues are described below. In addition, to this we have ensured all our frontline colleagues selling and providing information to customers are advising customers to check for changes to journeys before they travel.

The majority of train operators do not put warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps;

Actions taken by Hull Trains: -

We currently show warning messages on the Live Departures and Arrivals page within the Travel Updates section of our website, mobile website and on the Live Times page of our mobile app but this only covers on the day disruption.

We have inserted a link to a webpage on our Travel Information page to ensure customers are informed as to the issues currently faced by the late presentation of information involving certain operators from May 20th 2018.

Where improvements are underway: -

We plan to extend the messaging capability within our mobile app. This will be in the form of a prompt where a customer plans a journey that hasn’t been confirmed by Network Rail or where late notice possession requests mean an amended timetable will be in operation. The prompt will redirect customers to the relevant section of the NRE website. Customers not affected will be asked to disregard the message. This messaging capability is currently used to communicate service information, in particular relating to on the day disruption (see response to last concern). Barriers preventing improvements being made:

We are unaware of any significant barriers preventing improvements around this particular area of concern.

Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;

Actions taken by Hull Trains:

As noted in our response to the question above, we currently show warning messages on our Live Departures page within the Travel Information section of our website, mobile website and on the Live Times page of our mobile app but this only covers on the day disruption.

Where improvements are underway:

See response above.

Barriers preventing improvements being made:

We are unaware of any significant barriers preventing improvements around this particular area of concern.

Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options;

Actions taken by Hull Trains:

We have reached agreement with Network Rail for train journeys that are unaffected by engineering works (mainly weekday and some weekends) to be made available in industry systems as far in advance as possible. This has been done for those services we are certain will run, however where there is planned engineering or uncertainty around engineering, then services have not been opened for reservations until we have confirmation of the timetable.

On the extremely rare occasion that services have been opened for reservations and there has been a significant change to journey times because of engineering works or other factors, we will contact by email all those customers who have booked through our own digital channels informing them of the changes to journey times and how they can claim a refund should they decide not to travel.

In the past we have also asked third party retailers such as the Trainline to contact customers on our behalf who have booked through the Trainline website or mobile app.

Where improvements are underway:

There are no immediate improvements planned in this area but we welcome any further suggestions that could provide more information to customers.

Barriers preventing improvements being made:

Train operators have visibility of the customers who have made bookings through their own internet channels but most online bookings are made through third party internet retailers like the Trainline. Providing a way to quickly and easily contact all customers booked on services affected by disruption or an amended timetable, regardless of which online channel they purchased their ticket from, would be a positive step forward in terms of quickly updating customers of changes to journey times. Currently achieving this outcome is dependent on the train operator contacting third party internet retailers, agreeing the messaging and then asking them to send out the email communication on the operator’s behalf.

Third party retailers and other train operator websites should also display appropriate warnings / icons informing customers of likely changes so they are not misled. Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made;

*Actions taken by Hull Trains:*

We continue to work closely with Network Rail to ensure that timetable bids are processed in a timely manner and amended timetables are available to the public as quickly as possible. Where services have not been updated with amended timetables because of late notice engineering works, Hull Trains will not open or will close down (if open already) those services. However, despite reservations being unavailable, these services still show in journey planning systems as running until an amended timetable has been agreed with Network Rail. We recognise that Network Rail has instigated processes to reduce late possession requests but they are still occurring.

*Where improvements are underway:*

As mentioned in our responses to the first two areas of concern, we are looking to introduce warning icons on our booking flows similar to the warning triangles on the NRE website informing customers of likely changes to the timetable.

*Barriers preventing improvements being made:*

It is important that Network Rail recovers the Informed Traveller timescales and is able to process late notice bids in a timely and efficient manner. Where it is necessary to amend timetables in order to carry out engineering works, we would encourage Network Rail to look at ways of suppressing affected train services quickly so that the data is not pulled through into public journey planners.

Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility;

*Actions taken by Hull Trains:*

We keep our website updated with the dates for which our best value Advance Purchase tickets are open: [https://www.hulltrains.co.uk/customer-services/cheap-ticket-alerts/](https://www.hulltrains.co.uk/customer-services/cheap-ticket-alerts/)

The above link also provides an automated e-mail service whereby customers can be immediately notified as to when the cheaper tickets become available.

We have a page offering advice on which ticket is the best for customers and offers available to them: [https://www.hulltrains.co.uk/tickets-and-offers/](https://www.hulltrains.co.uk/tickets-and-offers/)

*Where improvements are underway:*

There are no immediate improvements planned in this area but we welcome any further suggestions that could provide more clarity on ticket availability.

*Barriers preventing improvements being made:*

We are unaware of any significant barriers preventing improvements around this particular area of concern.

Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends;

*Actions taken by Hull Trains:*

We work closely with Network Rail to ensure that engineering is carried out at the least disruptive times to customers.

The Planned Engineering Works page within our Travel Information section of the website shows all planned engineering works across the Hull Trains network - [https://www.hulltrains.co.uk/travel-information/planned-engineering-works/](https://www.hulltrains.co.uk/travel-information/planned-engineering-works/). This also highlights the specific trains affected by the works. Where improvements are underway:

There are no immediate improvements planned in this area but we welcome any further suggestions that could provide a greater distinction between daytime and evening/weekend engineering.

Barriers preventing improvements being made:

We are unaware of any significant barriers preventing improvements around this particular area of concern.

Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not.

Actions taken by Hull Trains:

We have the ability through our mobile app to display messaging and have used this most recently during Christmas engineering works. We are also exploring the opportunity to make more use of this during service disruptions using push notifications.

Where improvements are underway:

We will continue to optimise this messaging through the development of our mobile app.

Barriers preventing improvements being made:

We are unaware of any significant barriers preventing improvements around this particular area of concern.

Whilst we recognise the importance of keeping our customers informed, we do feel that in this case it is worth pointing out why we are in a situation that is not of our making. We are extremely disappointed by the way in which Network Rail handled the development of and subsequent late notification of the May 2018 timetable. The decision could have been much earlier around the delay to Bolton electrification which ultimately led to the situation we have found ourselves in for the Informed Traveller bidding process for the May 2018 timetable.

We would also like to note that that we did not agree to the recommendation by Network Rail to reduce the timescales for timetable uploads nationally as a result of the delay to the Bolton electrification programme. Rather, Network Rail presented this as the least worst option and one that it was therefore going to progress with. Without a base timetable confirmed we have been unable to bid at the standard timescales of T-18 and therefore not all of our train services can be uploaded and confirmed to our passengers at T-12. We have managed to reach agreement with Network Rail for train schedules that will be unaffected by engineering works (e.g. weekday services) to be made available in industry systems as far in advance as possible which is helpful, but we cannot offer the same level of certainty for other services, particularly those at weekends.

Furthermore, Network Rail did inform us as operators that it would be taking full responsibility for the failure to meet its licence obligations in respect of timetable uploads, and furthermore than operators should not be held accountable for this situation. We are encouraged that Network Rail has been meeting with ORR to inform them of progress and we welcome the investigation by ORR into the cause of this situation.

We would be happy to discuss any of the information provided above in further detail.

Yours sincerely

Louise Cheeseman Acting Managing Director Hull Trains Dear John,

Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

Thank you for your letter dated 8th May relating to the obligations under condition 4 of our passenger licence.

Merseyrail is committed to ensuring that we meet all of our commitments, especially in ensuring that our passengers have timely and accurate information when travelling with us. We have worked hard over the last 18 months to improve the flow of information with our business, particularly around social media, where we have introduced significant improvements which we believe reflect the needs of the modern passenger.

We know from feedback, and a 25% increase in user volumes over the last 18 months alone, that this work has proven popular with customers. We remain committed to further improving our information provision to ensure we are fit for the future.

I turn specifically to the points raised in both of your letters on this issue. Before I address each one individually, I would point out that the nature of our business has meant historically we have not had the need for an online retail offer. We are a small, metropolitan operating company with low ticket prices and staffed ticket offices from start to end of train service. Historically this has meant therefore our passengers have preferred to buy in person from the booking office.

Whilst the nature of our business hasn’t fundamentally changed, clearly the world around us and, in particular, customer expectations have. Which is why we are part way through a significant change programme with our client, Merseytravel, to introduce smart ticketing products onto our network. Our aspiration moving forward is that this will include the provision of online retailing for our customers to help meet some of their changing expectations. Moving onto the specific points made in your most recent letter. You mention that the majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps. You also mention that where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all. In Merseyrail's case, both our app and website take a direct feed from the Darwin system which includes the provision of all of the functionality you describe. We believe that in regards to these points Merseyrail is compliant.

You go on to state that where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options. In the case of Merseyrail, as detailed above, all of our ticket sales are conducted via our booking offices and therefore we do not routinely collect passenger contact information. We keep customers updated via our website, mobile app, social media channels and station announcements and advise them of where to obtain further information and advice if necessary.

With regards to your point that attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made. Merseyrail makes every effort to ensure that times on our website are accurate 12 weeks in advance of travel, more recently National issues, faced by all train operating companies, have reduced this to 6 weeks. We have worked hard with RDG partners to ensure customers remain informed. We are confident that this is not a significant issue on our digital channels and where we do have variances in the timetables we will use a manual override on our website that allows the information to be omitted with relevant information for passengers.

We also note from your letter that some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility. As mentioned earlier in this response, Merseyrail do not currently retail advance tickets online. Merseyrail does, however, retail advance tickets at our booking offices for travel on other operators' networks. When a customer visits our booking offices to do this, our staff offer a bespoke travel planning service, ensuring the customer gets the best value ticket to meet their needs and, on request, will identify where suitable advance tickets are available.

It is extremely rare that weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters would be scheduled on our network. In the event that this did happen, we have processes in place to ensure that customers could easily distinguish them from those taking place overnight or at weekends. In the past this has included overriding our journey planner with an alternative planner specific to the disruption, banner links on our website and app, leaflets given out by promotional staff at peak periods in advance of the works advising customers of what to expect and station/on-board announcements.

Finally, both our website and app have the functionality to display banner adds when services are disrupted. I hope this information is useful and helps to reassure you as to Merseyrail's commitment to keeping our passengers informed.

As ever we would welcome any feedback or queries you may have on any of the information provided.

Yours sincerely,

[Signature]

Andy Heath Managing Director John Larkinson\
Director\
Directorate of Railway Markets and Economics\
The Office of Rail and Road

18 May 2018

Dear ORR

Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger and Consumer Law.

Thank you for your letter of 8 May 2018 in which you set out requirements for compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions (Information to Passengers) and the Consumer Protection (from Unfair Trading) Regulations 2018.

In your letter you set out your expectations for compliance with Licence Condition 4 under three broad principles which included existing actions from the industry’s Passenger Information During Disruption (PIDD) programme. You confirmed that you would continue to monitor compliance with this licence condition and the principles.

You have also been carrying out monitoring into the UK Rail Industry’s compliance with the above mentioned measures and you have collated these findings into a report which you intend to publish later this month. Areas of particular concern in your monitoring have included:

1. The majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps
2. Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all
3. Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options
4. Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made
5. Some operators that sell advanced tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advanced ticket calendar or registration facility
6. Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends, and
7. Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not

Across these areas of concern, you have asked UK Train Operating Companies to:

1. Set out the action that we have taken to ensure that passengers get the information that they need, especially when short notice changes are being made to the timetable

2. Explain where the necessary improvements are underway but have yet to be implemented, together with timescales for their introduction; and

3. Highlight any barriers preventing us from making all the improvements together with the action being taken to address these

**Background for MTR Crossrail**

MTR Crossrail is the operator of TfL Rail and of future Elizabeth line services.

We are both a Transport for London Concession (operating the railway on behalf of Transport for London) and a UK Train Operating Company.

TfL Rail is a Transport for London mode and as such we offer the following journey planning and ticket retailing facilities:

- Journey planning is provided by the Transport for London Journey Planner. There is no dedicated TfL Rail journey planner. The TfL Journey Planner is updated four weeks in advance (by which time National Rail Journey Planners will have had ample time to update with correct information)
- We offer a turn-up-and-go service where customers can pay using a number of methods including Oyster, Contactless or by buying a National Rail or TfL paper ticket. Discounted advanced tickets are not provided for point-to-point TfL journeys
- The TfL website is the primary source of on-line service information for customers. There is no dedicated app for TfL modes

The points mentioned above ameliorate the risk to customers of your concerns raised in points 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 of your letter. For the remaining points, please see our responses below:

4. **Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made**

There may be times (for example during emergency engineering work) where train timetables need to be changed at short notice. Under such circumstances we ensure the following provisions are made to publicise the change to customers:

- Where the change is known more than 24 hours in advance, we will update the timetable on the TfL Journey Planner to ensure that the service is displayed correctly. It is important to note that customers will not have purchased advance tickets (as these are not offered for TfL journeys) and therefore we prioritise real time information, ensuring that National Rail Enquiries and TfL Journey Planner show the correct timetable.
- We will also publicise the change on:
  - Social media
  - Long Line Public Address Announcements at stations
  - Static publicity on stations

6. **Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends**

Over the lifetime of the TfL Rail Concession, there have been very few instances where this has occurred. When these have occurred, we have managed our customer communications in the following way: We have ensured that appropriate notices are placed on the TfL website – including banners on the home page, special notices on the TfL Journey Planner and updates on the service status page.

In the rare event that the works need to take place at short notice, then we advertise service alterations in the following way:

- Social media
- Long Line Public Address Announcements at stations
- Static publicity on stations
- Electronic Service Update Boards (ESUBs) at stations and on the TfL website

In the future, we will continue to manage our communications under these scenarios in the same way.

The Elizabeth line will transform travel in London when it opens in 2018. MTR Crossrail takes its responsibilities for providing accurate and timely passenger information during disruption extremely seriously. In addition to the points raised in this letter (and more broadly across PIDD) we will continue to invest and innovate to improve the quality of customer information that we deliver to our customers as we move towards the launch of the Elizabeth line later this year.

Yours faithfully

John Geary Head of Customer Experience, MTR Crossrail Thank you for your letter dated 8 May regarding 'Compliance with Condition 4 of the Passenger License and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger and Consumer Law'.

Providing our customers accurate information to enable an informed decision is exceptionally important to us at South Western Railway (SWR).

As you will be aware, ORR wrote to SWR on 12 December 2017 concerning SWR's obligations under SNRP Condition 4 (§ 6) and in my response of 15 December I observed that such obligations relate to the provision of appropriate information to the greatest extent reasonably practicable having regard to all relevant circumstances. I also made clear that this is an obligation which reflects the realities of the circumstances in which SWR is operating including the actions which it can take in light of dependencies on others including Network Rail.

With regard to Network Rail, we have, and continue to, work collaboratively to minimise any impact associated with late delivery of validated timetable information. This has included using SWR colleagues to support Network Rail's train planning team.

Whilst we recognise the importance of keeping our customers informed, we do feel that in this case it is worth pointing out why we are in a situation that is not of our making. We are extremely disappointed by the way in which Network Rail handled the development of and subsequent late notification of the May 2018 timetable. The decision around the delay to Bolton electrification - which ultimately led to the situation we have found ourselves in for the Informed Traveller bidding process for the May 2018 timetable - could have been made much earlier.

We would also like to note that that we did not agree to the recommendation by Network Rail to reduce the timescales for timetable uploads nationally as a result of the delay to the Bolton electrification programme. Rather, Network Rail presented this as the least worst option and one that it was therefore going to progress with. Without a base timetable confirmed we have been unable to bid at the standard timescales of T-18 and therefore not all of our train services can be uploaded and confirmed to our passengers at T-12. We have managed to reach agreement with Network Rail for train schedules that will be unaffected by engineering works (e.g. weekday services) to be made available in industry systems as far in advance as possible. which is helpful, but we cannot offer the same level of certainty for other services, particularly those at weekends.

To compound the situation, we are continuing to receive late notification requests for possessions which materially affect our ability to bid in a timely manner and further disrupt our customers’ plans. We recognise that Network Rail has instigated processes to reduce late possession requests but they are still occurring.

Finally, Network Rail did inform operators that it would be taking full responsibility for the failure to meet its licence obligations in respect of timetable uploads, and furthermore that operators should not be held accountable for this situation. We are encouraged that Network Rail has been meeting with ORR to inform them of progress and we welcome the investigation by ORR into the cause of this situation.

To address each of your identified concerns, listed within your letter:

1/2 Network Rail is now delivering validated timetables 6 weeks in advance. For journey searches six weeks in advance (or longer), each train service enquiry on our website presents our customers with an icon, that when clicked, will advise the following:

Service update

Timetable updates for your journey: At present, we cannot confirm whether this service will run and some additional services may be missing from the journey planner. We would advise that you follow this link to sign up for information about any potential changes to your service.

> More details

The ‘more details’ link transfers the customer to the National Rail Enquiries website, which provides more detailed information. The webpage advises, by train operator, the future weekdays/weekends that are confirmed as accurate within journey planners, and those that are not. The message prompts customers to sign up for information updates regarding potential changes to journeys for the date selected.

In addition, on our website landing page, we have a dedicated, prominent reference advising customers that future timetable information greater than six weeks may be incorrect. For customers that wish to book tickets for services beyond six weeks, we have committed to our customers a number of options should the chosen service be subsequently confirmed as altered, once the timetable has been confirmed at T- 6 weeks (or greater). The information presented is shown below:

Temporary changes to how far in advance railway timetables will be confirmed

Network Rail has temporarily changed how far in advance train timetables can be confirmed following ongoing problems with industry planning processes. Train times and tickets are usually confirmed and available for you to plan and book your journeys up to 12 weeks before you travel. Now, train times will be confirmed and finalised up to 6 weeks before you travel.

Network Rail are working hard to rectify this problem, but there is no quick fix and we anticipate the issue will continue for some time.

We are sorry that this may affect your ability to plan ahead and we will keep you updated on our progress to resolve this issue which affects all train operators. What this means when you buy advanced tickets With only a small number of South Western Railway trains affected by this, we want you to continue planning your journeys and have put in place a series of measures to support this.

You will still be able to purchase tickets including our discounted advance fares on longer journeys 12 weeks before you travel, but it is possible the train timetable could change. We expect final timetables to be confirmed six weeks before your train’s departure date.

What should you do if your Advance Purchase ticket is bought more than six weeks before you travel? If you purchase an Advance ticket more than six weeks before your journey, please ensure you check back with us at the 6 weeks mark to see if your train time, mode of travel (bus replacement instead of a train) and price may have altered.

If you check back and your train time has changed significantly (moved by over 15 minutes either side of your ticket), then your tickets will be valid on the service immediately before or after your originally booked service without you having to make any changes to your ticket.

Refunds are not normally available on advance purchase tickets, but if the change in journey times or mode of travel (a bus replacement service) means that you no longer wish to travel you may claim a full refund on the unused tickets from your original retailer.

If the fare available 6 weeks before the departure date is less than the fare originally purchased for the same journey you may wish to purchase these tickets at the cheaper fare. A full refund of the original unused tickets with no admin fee will be available from the retailer where you made your original purchase.

Within the next few weeks, our IT team will be ready to deploy an enhancement to the app which will present a pop up when customers plan a journey or book a ticket. The pop up will request that customers that have selected a journey date longer than six weeks ahead should ‘click here’, which will then redirect the customer to the relevant section of the National Rail Enquiries website (as above). Customers that have selected a journey date less than six weeks ahead will be asked to disregard the pop up.

In addition, our IT team are currently working on a solution to present customers similar information when they book a ticket through our website.

3 Following a customer booking a ticket greater than 6 weeks in advance, our advice is to sign up to the National Rail Enquiries service, which we regard as the only practical solution at this stage, in order to advise of any changes to the selected train service. In addition, we have ensured that the information relating to journeys being booked greater than 6 weeks in advance is exceptionally prominent on our website landing page.

4 As mentioned, Network Rail is now delivering validated timetables 6 weeks in advance. During the period where this was not being consistently achieved, we ensured a range of information was available to customers to ensure there was awareness of the potential inaccuracies. Our website had a banner providing links to the subsequent 4 weekends. For the immediate weekend ahead, customers were linked to PDF timetables of the services we were expecting to operate. For the subsequent 3 weekends after, customers were directed to an engineering summary for each weekend, which indicated if train services were unlikely to operate as per the base timetable. 5 Information relating to Advance Purchase tickets and how many weeks prior to the date of travel that they can be purchased, is one click from our website landing page.

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/train-tickets/cheap-train-tickets/advance-tickets

6 Other than major engineering blocks, spanning several days, planned engineering work during weekdays, affecting peak time commuters does not take place.

7 As described in my response to items 1/2, our solution via the pop up is a prominent presentation of information to our customers. Our IT team are currently working on a similar approach to present disruption information for users of the app.

I would be happy to discuss any of the information above in further detail should it be required.

Yours sincerely

Andy Mellors Managing Director South Western Railway Dear John,

When Southeastern first became aware of the looming industry challenges with the Informed Traveller process, we moved quickly to introduce a process to ensure that our passengers were provided with information that alerted them to the problem, but also provided them with meaningful information about when the information in journey planners was expected to be correct. I’ve addressed each of the areas of concern raised below;

1. **The majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps;**

I’m pleased to confirm that we are in the minority here. When our website was relaunched toward the end of 2016, we specified to the developers that the incorporation of NRE’s disruption feeds and warning flags / icons was a mandatory requirement.

2. **Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;**

As per 1) above, we actively do include this information in our journey planner / booking engine, here’s an example;

John Larkinson Director Directorate of Railway Markets and Economics 17 May 2018 3) Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options

Southeastern Advance tickets sold through our channels account for only 0.5% of our sales revenue overall; and only represent 1% of overall ticket issues. It is therefore a very small part of our business and it is also a purely discretionary activity for us which is not part of our franchise agreement but something we have voluntarily introduced around three years ago to help stimulate the off-peak market.

Because we are primarily a walk-up railway, with most journeys not booked far in advance of travel, even these advance tickets tend to be bought quite close to the time of travel.

Less than 1% of all our ticket sales are sold 6 weeks or more before travel, and 81% of tickets we sell are bought on the day of travel itself.

4. Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made

In line with 1 and 2 above, we do make it clear to passengers where information is incorrect, including where necessary, prominent “banner” warnings on our website.

5. Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility We are encouraging our customers to sign up for the alerting service offered by National Rail Enquiries so they can subscribe and be notified when advance tickets for Southeastern journeys go on sale. We have now added a rudimentary calendar / availability summary for advance purchase tickets to our website, which can be found here: https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/tickets/tickets-explained/advance-tickets

**Availability of Advance fares**

Advance tickets are currently on sale up to and including the dates below -

| Day | Route | Opened Until | Notes | |-----------|--------------------------------------------|--------------|------------------------| | Weekdays | All routes | 9 August | | | Saturdays | Charing Cross to Ramsgate via Ashford & Canterbury | 16 June | | | | Charing Cross to Dover via Ashford & Folkestone | 16 June | | | | Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells & Hastings | 16 June | | | | St. Pancras to Ramsgate / Margate via Ashford & Canterbury | 16 June | | | | St. Pancras to Dover via Ashford & Folkestone | 16 June | | | | St. Pancras to Margate via Gravesend | 16 June | | | | Victoria to Dover via Canterbury East | 16 June | | | | Victoria to Margate via Rochester | 16 June | Except 9 June | | | Victoria to Ashford via Maidstone East | 16 June | | | Sundays | Charing Cross to Ramsgate via Ashford & Canterbury | 17 June | | | | Charing Cross to Dover via Ashford & Folkestone | 17 June | | | | Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells & Hastings | 17 June | Except 20 May | | | St. Pancras to Ramsgate / Margate via Ashford & Canterbury | 10 June | | | | St. Pancras to Dover via Ashford & Folkestone | 10 June | | | | St. Pancras to Margate via Gravesend | 10 June | | | | Victoria to Dover via Canterbury East | 17 June | | | | Victoria to Margate via Rochester | 17 June | | | | Victoria to Ashford via Maidstone East | 17 June | |

6. **Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends;**

Outside of major programmes, such as the August and Christmas blockades of London Bridge as part of the Thameslink programme, **planned** engineering work affecting rush hour services is exceptionally rare. When this does happen, however, we would promote this heavily through our website and social media channels as we did during the major closures as part of the Thameslink programme. 7) Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disruption, many apps do not;

As noted previously, we incorporate the NRE feeds into our website and app but also have the ability to create our own as well. Here’s an example;

Regards

David Statham Managing Director Our Ref: DH/SK/180521/001

21st May 2018

John Larkinson Director Railway Markets & Economics Office of Rail and Road One Kemble Street London WC2B 4AN

By email: john.larkinson@orr.gsi.gov.uk

Dear John,

Compliance with Condition 4 of the Passenger License and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer Law

Further to your letter dated 8th May 2018 to Leo Goodwin, please find below our responses to the three questions you set out against each of the 7 areas of concern identified through your monitoring of compliance with License Condition 4.

As the ORR will be aware Network Rail have been unable to deliver the May 2018 timetable within the usual timescales because of the delays to the Manchester to Preston (Phase 4) electrification scheme and as a consequence has failed to comply with its license obligation to release confirmed timetables to train operators at least 12 weeks prior to departure (The ‘Informed Traveller’ requirement). The implications for train operators of this are that timetables are not being validated until 6 weeks prior to departure and are subject to more short notice changes than normal. This is having a significant impact on our customers who expect to be able to plan and book journeys at least 12 weeks before travel as well as a reputational impact for the industry as whole. It is therefore imperative that Network Rail recovers back to the ‘Informed Traveller’ timescales as quickly as possible. The actions we are taking or plan to take around our digital channels (website, mobile website and app) to respond to the current issues are described below. In addition to this we have ensured all our frontline colleagues selling and providing information to customers are advising customers to check for changes to journeys before they travel, in particular where tickets are sold more than 6 weeks out. This includes those colleagues providing information and advice through our social media customer service channels. We issued a Retail Brief to frontline colleagues on the 13th April advising them of this issue and have recently followed up this messaging in our latest edition of ‘Retail Matters’, a publication for frontline retail colleagues issued 3-4 times a year. We would be happy to provide examples of these communications should you wish to see them.

The majority of train operators do not put warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps;

**Actions taken by TransPennine Express:**

We currently show warning messages on the Live Train Times page within the Travel Updates section of our website and mobile website and on the Live Times page of our mobile app but this only covers on the day disruption.

**Where improvements are underway:**

We are working on an improvement to our booking flow so that customers purchasing a ticket will see a warning icon against any services which have not been confirmed by Network Rail or where late notice possession requests mean an amended timetable will be in operation. When clicked the icon will present customers with a similar message to that displayed on the NRE website:

*Timetable updates for your journey: At present, we cannot confirm whether this service will run and some additional services may be missing from the journey planner. We would advise that you follow this link to sign up for information about any potential changes to your service.*

➢ More details

The ‘more details’ link will transfer the customer to the National Rail Enquiries website, which provides more detailed information. The website advises, by train operator, the future weekdays/weekends that are confirmed as accurate within journey planners, and those that are not. The message prompts customers to sign up for information updates regarding potential changes to journeys for the date selected. The work is currently being scoped by our digital agency and is expected to be available to customers by the end of the year.

We also plan to extend existing messaging capability within our mobile app. This will be in the form of a ‘pop up’ where a customer plans a train journey that hasn’t been confirmed by Network Rail or where late notice possession requests mean an amended timetable will be in operation. The ‘pop up’ will redirect customers to the relevant section of the NRE website. Customers not affected will be asked to disregard the message. This messaging capability is currently used to communicate service information, in particular for on the day disruption (see response to last concern).

**Barriers preventing improvements being made:**

Network Rail is currently working through a recovery plan due to late completion of the Manchester to Preston electrification scheme. It is important that Network Rail recovers the Informed Traveller timescales and is able to process late notice bids in a timely and efficient manner. Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;

*Actions taken by TransPennine Express:* -

As noted in our response to the question above, we currently show warning messages on our Live Train Times page within the Travel Updates section of our website and mobile website and on the Live Times page of our mobile app but this only covers on the day disruption.

*Where improvements are underway:* -

See response above.

*Barriers preventing improvements being made:* -

Network Rail is currently working through a recovery plan due to late completion of the Manchester to Preston electrification scheme. It is important that Network Rail recovers the Informed Traveller timescales and is able to process late notice bids in a timely and efficient manner.

Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options;

*Actions taken by TransPennine Express:* -

TransPennine Express has reached agreement with Network Rail for train journeys that are unaffected by engineering works (mainly weekday and some weekends) to be made available in industry systems as far in advance as possible. This has been done for those services we are certain will run, however where there is planned engineering or uncertainty around engineering then services have not been opened for reservations. For example, services are currently closed for reservations due to planned engineering in June and July for the Liverpool Lime Street Upgrade works and across several weekends where there are other known engineering works or potential engineering works.

On the extremely rare occasion that services have been opened for reservations and there has been a significant change to journey times because of engineering works or other factors, we will contact by email all those customers who have booked through our own digital channels informing them of the changes to journey times and how they can claim a refund should they decide not to travel.

In the past we have also asked third party retailers such as the Trainline to contact customers on our behalf who have booked through the Trainline website or mobile app.

*Where improvements are underway:* -

We are in the process of introducing more automation into our business such that if journey times do change significantly for customers who have booked through our digital channels then we are able to contact them as quickly as possible regarding details of amended timetables. We have recently invested significantly in both our IT systems architecture and a new eCRM solution that means we can quickly identify the customers affected and send an email communication out to them.

*Barriers preventing improvements being made:* -

Train operators have visibility of the customers who have made bookings through their own internet channels but most online bookings are made through third party internet retailers like the Trainline. Providing a way to quickly and easily contact all customers booked on services affected by disruption or an amended timetable, regardless of which online channel they purchased their ticket from, would be a positive step forward in terms of quickly updating customers of changes to journey times. Currently achieving this outcome is dependent on the train operator contacting third party internet retailers, agreeing the messaging and then asking them to send out the email communication on the operator’s behalf.

Third party retailers and other train operator websites should also display appropriate warnings / icons informing customers of likely changes so they are not misled.

Network Rail is currently working through a recovery plan due to late completion of the Manchester to Preston electrification scheme. It is important that Network Rail recovers the Informed Traveller timescales and is able to process late notice bids in a timely and efficient manner.

**Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made;**

*Actions taken by TransPennine Express:* -

TransPennine Express continues to work closely with Network Rail to ensure that timetable bids are processed in a timely manner and amended timetables are available to the public as quickly as possible. Where services have not been updated with amended timetables because of late notice engineering works, TransPennine Express will not open or will close down (if open already) those services. However, despite reservations being unavailable, these services still show in journey planning systems as running until an amended timetable has been agreed with Network Rail. We recognise that Network Rail has instigated processes to reduce late possession requests but they are still occurring.

*Where improvements are underway:* -

As mentioned in our responses to the first two areas of concern, we are looking to introduce warning icons on our booking flow similar to the warning triangles on the NRE website informing customers of likely changes to the timetable.

*Barriers preventing improvements being made:* -

Network Rail is currently working through a recovery plan due to late completion of the Manchester to Preston electrification scheme. It is important that Network Rail recovers the Informed Traveller timescales and is able to process late notice bids in a timely and efficient manner.

Where it is necessary to amend timetables in order to carry out engineering works, we would encourage Network Rail to look at ways of suppressing affected train services quickly so that the data is not pulled through into public journey planners.

*Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility;*

*Actions taken by TransPennine Express:* -

We keep our website updated with the dates for which our best value Advance Purchase tickets are open: [https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/special-offers/advance-bookings/advanced-purchase-exclusions](https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/special-offers/advance-bookings/advanced-purchase-exclusions). We have a page offering 9 money saving tips to get the cheapest train tickets: https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/train-tickets/how-to-get-cheap-train-tickets

Our website also includes a page informing customers about the conditions of Advance Purchase tickets: https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/train-tickets/train-tickets-explained.

In addition, the calendar in our booking flow shows how far out tickets are available to book, with many services currently open up to 24 weeks prior to departure.

Where improvements are underway:

There are no immediate improvements planned in this area but we welcome any further suggestions that could provide more clarity on ticket availability.

Barriers preventing improvements being made:

We are unaware of any significant barriers preventing improvements around this particular area of concern.

Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends;

Actions taken by TransPennine Express:

The Planned Engineering Works page within our Travel Updates section of the website shows all planned engineering works across the TPE network. https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/travel-updates/changes-to-train-times. This also highlights the specific trains affected by the works.

Where improvements are underway:

There are no immediate improvements planned in this area but we welcome any further suggestions that could provide a greater distinction between daytime and evening/weekend engineering.

Barriers preventing improvements being made:

We are unaware of any significant barriers preventing improvements around this particular area of concern.

Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not.

Actions taken by TransPennine Express:

We have the ability through our mobile app to display messaging and have used this most recently during disruption caused by the severe winter weather (‘Beast from the East’) at the end of February / early March (see example below). Where improvements are underway: -

We will continue to optimise this messaging through the development of our mobile app.

Barriers preventing improvements being made: -

Network Rail is currently working through a recovery plan due to late completion of the Manchester to Preston electrification scheme. It is important that Network Rail recovers the Informed Traveller timescales and is able to process late notice bids in a timely and efficient manner.

We hope this response provides you with the level of information you need for each area of concern. Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely

Darren Higgins Commercial Director Dear John

Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

Thank you for your letter of 8 May.

We fully recognise the importance of providing accurate and timely information to customers to help them plan their journeys and book the right tickets for their journey. This has been more challenging than normal in recent months in view of the delays in Network Rail finalising the precise timings of our trains, which has resulted in delays in opening them for reservations to the normal 12 week horizons.

We have nevertheless done all we can to open trains for reservation as soon as timings have been confirmed, recognising how important it is that they are accurate before we do so.

We have taken measures to mitigate the impact of the delays in confirming times and opening services for reservations on our customers, in order that they should not be disadvantaged in obtaining the tickets they want to buy.

The actions we have taken in respect of the particular issues you have raised in your letter are as follows

Warnings on our Website and NRES

We have placed a prominent banner message on the homepage of our desktop and mobile website which takes customers to a 'late timetables' help page. See Appendix 1 for details of how these are displayed.

Where customers make enquiries through National Rail in relation to services where timings have not been confirmed, warnings are displayed on a train by train basis as shown in Appendix 2. Contact with Customers after Booking Made

For bookings made through our website, the two scenarios below describe how contact is made with our customers:

Scenario 1: Advance tickets are not yet available at the time of booking.

Customers will see messaging at the time of booking, which asks for their email. Customers will then receive an email as soon as the cheaper, Advance tickets are released. See Appendix 3 for the pop-up box displayed in these circumstances.

Scenario 2: Advance tickets become available.

Where a Customer has booked with another ticket type, we let them know Advance fares are now available and they can get an alternative ticket, with a simple refund process. This applies to bookings across all our digital channels, mobile, app and desktop.

Customers who have not already booked any tickets, but who provided an email address in their earlier attempt to book, get an email to let them know Advance tickets are available.

Other Issues

In relation to other matters raised in your letter

- We have no experience of instances of train times still being wrong less than a week away from the journey being made.

- In cases where services are opened late for reservation, we give advice to customers as to when they can expect advance tickets to be available. See Appendix 4 for details which are kept updated on the National Rail website.

- So far as distinguishing between advice about weekday daytime works and overnight/weekend works is concerned, our planned improvements calendar gives details in respect of each individual day

  https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/travel-updates/planned-improvements

- For major blocks such as the forthcoming one at Liverpool Lime Street, a pop up box displays when a booking is requested for which train times have not been confirmed. Please see Appendix 5 for how this looks. In addition, emails have been sent to regular Liverpool based customers to highlight the issue. Emails are also sent to customers who have booked through our website to travel from Liverpool during the affected dates.

- When booking though the Virgin Trains app customers are alerted to current disruptions which would affect their planned journey. I hope you find the information in this response helpful. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions in relation to it.

Yours sincerely

Mark Whitehouse Managing Director Virgin Trains Appendix 1:

Banner message on home page:

This leads to the late timetables help page https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/travel-updates/timetables

What's happening?

Network Rail will be publishing their timetables a little later than usual for weekends and bank holidays between May and September 2018. That means our cheaper Advance fares for some of these dates may not be available until around 6 weeks before travel.

How does this affect me?

Don't worry, you can still buy flexible tickets now and if you're on one of our services where our cheaper Advance fares are normally available we'll email you to let you know when they are released.

Already booked a ticket for an affected date?

If you want to change ticket type and get a fee free refund, give our friendly services team a call on 0344 556 5622\*, making sure you have your booking reference to hand. The best time to call is between 1-5pm.

We're really sorry, we know it's a bit of a pain, but rest assured we're doing everything we can to make it as hassle free as possible for you.

\*Open 8am to 10pm, 7 days a week. Calls are charged at standard BT rates. Other operators may vary. Appendix 2: National Rail Enquires advice regarding unconfirmed timings

Appendix 3: Pop-Up warning message on Virgin Trains website Appendix 4: Information updated on NRES regarding confirmed timetables and booking horizons

| Virgin Trains | |---------------| | **Saturday 19 to Friday 25 May** | | We can confirm that the timetable for this week will be running as shown in the journey planner. To view these services, you can use the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner. | | **Saturday 26 May to Friday 1 June** | | We can confirm that the timetable for this week will be running as shown in the journey planner. To view these services, you can use the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner. | | **Saturday 2 to Friday 8 June** | | We can confirm that the timetable will be running as shown in the journey planner. To view these services, you can use the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner. | | **Saturday 9 to Friday 15 June** | | We can confirm that the timetable will be running as shown in the journey planner. To view these services, you can use the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner. | | **Saturday 16 to Friday 22 June** | | We can confirm that the timetable will be running as shown in the journey planner. To view these services, you can use the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner. | | **Saturday 23 to Friday 29 June** | | We can confirm that the timetable will be running as shown in the journey planner. To view these services, you can use the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner. | | **Saturday 30 June to Friday 6 July** | | At present, we cannot confirm whether these services are correct. We expect correct information to be available from Monday 21 May. | | **Saturday 7 to Friday 13 July** | | At present, we cannot confirm whether these services are correct. We expect correct information to be available from Tuesday 29 May. | | **Saturday 14 to Friday 20 July** | | At present, we cannot confirm whether these services are correct. We expect correct information to be available from Monday 11 June. | | **Saturday 21 to Friday 27 July** | | At present, we cannot confirm whether these services are correct. We expect correct information to be available from Monday 11 June. | | **Saturday 28 to Friday 3 August** | | From Tuesday to Friday, we can confirm that the timetable will be running as shown in the journey planner. To view these services, you can use the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner. | Appendix 5: Pop up box to alert customers seeking to make advance bookings affected by engineering works at Liverpool Lime Street, where timings are yet to be confirmed in industry systems.

Important information

Liverpool Lime Street station will be closed from 2 June until 29 July 2018 to upgrade the platforms, digital signalling and a few other bells and whistles.

During this time, all services that would usually travel to and from Lime Street will be affected. Our services will start and finish at Liverpool South Parkway.

Merseyrail are kindly providing connecting trains to and from Liverpool Central and Moorfields. (A rail replacement bus will be available early morning or late at night). Please check if your journey times are affected before you travel.

Continue > Dear John,

In response to your letter received on 08/05/18 which asked train operators to provide information about compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law, please see the response on behalf of Company Limited, trading as Virgin Trains East Coast (“VTEC”) below.

VTEC is committed to providing accurate and timely information to customers at all times. This has been more challenging than normal in recent months due to a delay in the publishing of the final timetable by Network Rail. This has meant that we have been unable to open reservations for some services as early as we would have liked to, and within the normal 12 week booking horizon.

We were asked to provide information in relation to 7 specific areas to demonstrate the activities that we are undertaking in light of this:

1. The majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps.

   If there are bulletins entered into the services in the industry systems, then these will show as warning messages in the VTEC booking engine.

   We have just deployed a new messaging functionality to target messages to particular dates (see screenshot below). It should be noted that VTEC has not been significantly impacted by the timetable delays. There is a small impact on some early morning / late evening services, and weekends when there is significant engineering work. To mitigate this risk, any affected services have been blocked from reservations until the timetables are confirmed or loaded.

Furthermore, we are looking into a solution which will delete the trains completely from the National Reservations System. This means that if trains are not open for reservations then customers will not be able to search for them at all via any retail channel as no data would be returned. At the point where we are ready to open reservations the timetable will be uploaded and the trains would then be opened for booking.

2. Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all.

There are a number of cautionary messages displayed on the customer booking engine pages of our website, and also on the Travel Information pages.

For customers attempting to book to travel on one of the affected services, a message has been provided which allows them to sign up for direct alerts which will ensure they are contacted as soon as the service becomes available to book (this is shown in the below images).

We are committed to making services available to book with the usual ticket availabilities so our customers will not miss out on the best fares, and we have continued to do this.

To support the above, a clear message regarding the changes to advance bookings has been published on the VTEC website, this contains further information for customers, including a list of the affected dates - this is shown in the image below and by following the link https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/travel-information/may-december-timetables/ 3. Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options.

Should a customer purchase a ticket through the VTEC website for a journey which is then changed, i.e. the journey is retimed; we would contact customers directly via email to inform them of the change, and to confirm the new time of the service.

The below screenshot shows an example of an email that was sent to customers following changes to journey times following engineering work at Newcastle station in January 2018.

Hello,

You’ll already have received email confirmation of your journey times with us this week, but if you’re a regular traveller you may have noticed some of our train times are slightly different from usual. Upgrade works at Newcastle station by Network Rail mean changes to our train services to and from the station up to and including Sunday 14 January. These changes are planned and your booked train will be no different from what is on your original booking confirmation and ticket but we wanted to make you aware of the work to highlight the fact that departure times and journey times are a little different from usual and might not be what you are expecting, so please double-check.

As always, it’s really important to check how your train is running before you travel so visit our website or National Rail Enquiries for the details and for any updates.

Have a great journey!

Kind regards

The Virgin Trains East Coast team

Unfortunately at present we have no way of contacting customers that have booked through non-VTEC channels. It is worth noting however that if we haven’t opened bookings or reservations for that date we will not have any customers on our database to contact. This is recognised as a challenge across the industry, and work is ongoing to improve the ability to contact customers as part of PIDD-19 and the Retail and Reservation System (RARs) project. In the interim, VTEC will continue to use all other available customer communication channels, including the website and social media, to keep customers updated. 4. Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made.

We have not been affected by any train services that are not confirmed less than a week before the journey being made. However, should this ever be the case then we would show the alert messages detailed in the response to questions 1 and 2.

5. Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility.

As outlined in the response to the points above, customers who try to book tickets for services which are not yet available will be directed to sign up for direct alerts. This will allow customers to purchase tickets as soon as they become available.

The below screenshots show the email templates that are sent to customers to confirm that they have been signed up to the alerts, and the email that is issued to advise customers once services are available to purchase.

1. This email will trigger when a customer signs up to a ticket alert to an affected date.

2. Once the reservations become available the customer will be sent a follow up email confirming that the date is available to book.

In the example of 3rd June 2018, only the email shown in image 1 was issued, this was because the template shown in image 2 had not yet been created. Going forward both emails will be issued, the first to any customers who have registered for a ticket alert, and the second, as soon as the date is released for sale.

6. **Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends.**

The majority of the affected dates for VTEC are weekend dates; these are all listed clearly on the website, as referenced in the response to question 2.

7. **Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not.**

A special message has been added to the Timetable Changes pages of the VTEC website for the weekend dates which are affected by major engineering works. An example for Sunday 3rd June is shown below (this message has been removed now that the date is open for reservations):

![Timetable Changes for Sunday 03 June](image)

Given that VTEC is affected on relatively few dates, and none to the extent of 3rd June 2018, we have not added a specific notice to the Travel Information page of the website as we felt this could be unnecessarily confusing for customers. Our view is that it is preferable to inform customers at the point of searching for affected journeys, and this is the plan currently being executed by our e-commerce team.

I hope this provides adequate reassurance that VTEC is making all reasonable endeavours to ensure customers are kept informed, and demonstrates our compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law. However, if you do require any further information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely,

Christabel Gavin Customer Experience Manager Dear John,

Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

Thank you for your letter dated 8 May 2018. While we are a new TOC, we have ambitious plans to improve the whole journey experience for our customers, including the quality of pre-journey information available. A number of the areas highlighted within the requirements documented are being worked on at both an industry level through Rail Delivery Group (RDG) and TOC level.

We are aware of our legal obligations in respect of the Consumer Rights Act 2015; particularly the need to ensure that our customers have clear and accurate information available to allow them to make their purchasing decision.

Taking each of the seven points in turn, I’ll outline what West Midlands Trains’ current position is and what we are doing to improve the situation. Where examples and screenshots are provided, these have been done using our London Northwestern Railway brand, but an identical approach is also used for the West Midlands Railway services.

1. The majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website on their website or apps.

   We do currently have the bulletins available when there are rail replacement services operating. This is available during our online booking process (see Appendix 1). It was recently agreed with RDG that a web service would be developed and available to TOCs for the bulletin data available on the NRE website for engineering work and ticket booking horizons. Timescales for when this will be available are not currently known and we will need to work through further how we integrate this with our technology. We also show warning messages from NRE in the WMT apps on the live trains pages.

2. Where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all.

   Unfortunately this functionality is not currently available with our contracted web ticket sales supplier, but we are in discussion with them to improve their systems and we are hoping to have a solution developed over the next few months. However, it can also depend on the nature of the disruption. For example, where a journey could still be made, it would re-plan the journey with changes or show extended journey times (see Appendix 2). We are looking at what opportunities there are to update and improve our website and are doing this in conjunction with our owning group.

3. **Where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options.**

While we absolutely understand the importance of keeping customers informed, we have a real challenge in that we do not know who the majority of our customers are. As walk up tickets can be purchased in advance through ticket offices, other TOCs and other retailers, the only time contact details would be known is for online and telesales bookings where an account is created. With a high quantity of season ticket holders regularly using the network, to contact this volume of customers every time there is disruption would not be practical. We do promote the use of Journey Check to our customers as a way of ensuring they have up to date journey information. We therefore have to use a general approach. In some cases the data we hold in transactions, e.g. for guest logons, may not be sufficient to be able to contact them – so we are reliant on general awareness campaigns.

We make use of other channels that are available, such as banners on the website and apps, Journey Check, Social Media channels, posters, leaflets, announcements and CIS to try and communicate the message to the majority.

4. **Attention is not being drawn to train times that are still wrong less than a week away from the journey being made.**

We would endeavour to make use of the general awareness campaigns, Social Media and banners to communicate where we can in the absence of a current technical solution.

5. **Some operators that sell advance tickets do not make it clear when they are available to buy, for example through the use of an advance ticket calendar or registration facility.**

We have details on our homepage with a link to more information on the dates for which Advanced tickets are available (see Appendix 3).

6. **Weekday daytime works affecting peak time commuters are not easily distinguished from those taking place overnight or at weekends.**

The calendar view in Appendix 4 shows where there are engineering works taking place on a weekday. They are treated as per the examples in earlier appendices. 7. Although websites and mobile sites nearly all have the facility to display a banner message when services are disrupted, many apps do not.

We do have the facility to add banners on both our websites and apps to communicate messages when it's appropriate to do so.

We are currently restructuring our business to create a centralised Customer Experience Strategy Department, so that areas such as this are accountable to a single part of the business. This affords us greater opportunity to influence our communications channels and develop a strategy that is more cohesive across all channels and we will be developing the customer interfaces further over the next few months to ensure we provide a more effective service.

I trust this provides you with sufficient information in response to your email, but please feel free to get in touch should you wish to discuss this further.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Camp Commercial Director Appendix 1

Single from Birmingham New Street to Birmingham International change journey

Single from Birmingham New Street to Liverpool Lime Street change journey Appendix 2 Appendix 3

Temporary changes to advance bookings Advance tickets up to 10 August 2018. Read More. Appendix 4

Changes to Train Times

Planned improvement work:

Check the calendar for a summary of the work we’ve got planned over the next few weeks.

| April 2018 | May 2018 | June 2018 | |-----------|----------|-----------| | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | | 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Liverpool Lime Street Upgrade and area works

Locations affected

Birmingham New Street to Liverpool Lime Street

Dates

Monday, January 20, 2019 to Wednesday, October 31, 2019

Upgrades to Liverpool Lime Street, the Mersey Tunnel project and new Liverpool North station are a few of the vital schemes that form part of a £1.6bn railway investment in the Liverpool City Region. This work also sits within the wider Great North Rail Project to transform rail travel for customers across the north of England.

Upcoming works

Spring bank holiday weekend

Saturday 26 May - Monday 28 May

Buses will replace trains between Crewe and Liverpool South Parkway to an amended timetable.

Customer for Liverpool Lime Street can use alternative train services from Crewe or Manchester services from Liverpool South Parkway.

Download more information

Liverpool Lime Street Upgrade phase 2

Saturday 2 June - Sunday 29 July

There will be 4 weeks of work at Liverpool Lime Street station this summer. During this time, London Northwestern services will run as far as Liverpool South Parkway. Customers for central Liverpool should use intercity rail services to Mossley.

These stations are within walking distance of Liverpool Lime Street station and many city centre attractions.